Nikki Haley Says Jan. 6 Riot “Was Not Great,” But Give Trump A Break
Most Americans would call what took place on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol an insurrection, an attempted coup, a national tragedy. But not Nikki Haley. Appearing Monday night with Fox’s Laura Ingraham, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador said the domestic terrorist riot in which a Capitol Police officer was killed simply “was not great.”
Haley also made it quite clear that she’s angling for the support of former president Donald Trump’s “base” as she plots an expected run for the presidency in 2024. “The actions of the president post Jan. 6, post Election Day were not great. What happened on Jan. 6 was not great. Does he deserve to be impeached? Absolutely not,” she said. In response to a question from Ingraham, Haley said she that if she were in the Senate she would not vote to convict Trump on the article of impeachment.
“I don’t even think there’s a basis for impeachment,” Haley said. “They didn’t even have a hearing in the House.” Fact check: there is no requirement for there to be a hearing in the House of Representatives for it to report out articles of impeachment. Haley then tried to make it sound like those who want to hold Trump accountable for his effort to subvert democracy are being too hard on him, like all he did was return a library book late.
Of the House she said, “Now they’re going to turn around and bring about impeachment yet they say they’re for unity. I mean, they beat him up before he got into office, now they’re beating him up after he leaves office. I mean at some point give the man a break.”
Nikki Haley: I don’t even think there’s a basis for impeachment… Now they’re going to turn around and bring about impeachment yet they say they’re for unity… I mean at some point I mean give the man a break. I mean move on… pic.twitter.com/IqnZrIDIY0
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 26, 2021
Those comments went over about as well as you would expect.
Nikki Haley: “They beat him up before he was in office, they beat him while he was in office, now they’re beating him up after he’s left office. Give the man a break.”
Per Nikki, Trump is the real victim here. The Republican Party is just not salvageable. https://t.co/r09wrMHt53
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) January 26, 2021
A police officer was murdered and @NikkiHaley is worried about giving Donald Trump a break. This is disqualifying and disgusting. She’ll never be president and she should never be respected. Law and order? It was all a lie., https://t.co/Nv1rMNq8bA
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) January 26, 2021